Driving to the Ohio River & riding on the ferry to Cave-in-Rock

It was 45° when we got up this morning. Since we only have 80 miles to travel today, we took our time breaking camp. We left Western KY RV Park at 10:50 and drove north on US-431 less than half a mile to Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and then west for 50 miles. It had now warmed up to 61°.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We turned north on KY-91 at Princeton driving through rolling hills and farmland.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We saw signs on KY-91 showing that it was the original route of the Trail of Tears

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

and drove through the small town of Fredonia where we got just a glimpse
of this huge house.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

A few miles farther north we drove into the town of Marion, Kentucky

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

and then kept going north on KY-91.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

A few miles north of Marion we saw this buggy road sign indicating that there is an Amish community there.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

The farther north we drove the narrower KY-91 became and we passed through fields of tall brown corn plants and then saw this field of corn being harvested.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We arrived at the landing for the Cave-in-Rock Ferry at 12:30. We saw this buckboard wagon parked over to the side of the landing but didn't see any people or the horse.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

The ferry left the Illinois landing shortly after we arrived at the Kentucky landing and arrived 7 minutes later.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We drove onto the center of the ferry and the cars that were behind us were parked next to us on the ferry. The ferry is free and is provided by the State of Kentucky through an agreement with the State of Illinois and averages 500 vehicles a day.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

Our trip across the Ohio River took about 8 minutes and we could see people walking along the shore near Cave-in-Rock.

From Central City to Cave-in-Rock

We drove into the small town of Cave-in-Rock,

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

down Main Street

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

and passed by this antique Fire Engine.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We arrived at the entrance to Cave-in-Rock State Park at 12:50.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We drove around the campground and picked site 30. The campsite really slants to the right and while Mike put leveling blocks under our jacks, I drove back down to the Camp Host to register and pay for our campsite. The camp hosts are Lyndal and Daisy a very nice couple who live just a few minutes from here and told me all about the area. They told me that we might see deer and wild turkeys and may hear the pack of coyotes that live around here. By the time I got back to the RV, Mike had leveled it and put out the slides. We have 30 amp electric (the plug was installed upside down in the electric box) and are paying $20 a night.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

We had already parked the RV when we realized that we didn't have a water spigot at the site and would have to move the RV to fill up our fresh water tank at one of the water spigots located by the bath house. Mike checked the level in our fresh water tank and it is almost half full, so we will have enough fresh water to last us while we're here. We didn't fix lunch until we had everything done to get set up here and by then it was 2:00. After lunch we just relaxed and enjoyed the cool breeze we had here. We walked over to the bath house about 5:00 and to use the showers there.

From Cave-in-Rock, IL

When we arrived there was a pop-up camper on the opposite side of the bath house from us, and then a van camper came in when we were walking over to take a shower. They parked several campsites away from the pop-up camper and us. Lyndal and Daisy (camp hosts) told me that they had a lot of mosquitoes here, so Mike put a Citronella lantern out by our door before it got dark tonight.